Big Garages With Their Ugly Garage Doors

#2 of 10 Home Design Mistakes

Forward ArrowNext

The bane of suburban man. The car has made the suburban home possible. The garage has made it ugly. We build beautiful houses and then hide them behind large garages with ugly garage doors that dominate the view from the street.

I have plenty to say on this subject in a series of articles on how to overcome the garage door problem.

Ugly Garage
The best you can say is "There are worse". Sad. Very Sad.

Let me summarize my thoughts here. A house is where we live. A garage is where we store something. The living should be what we present to the world. The storage thing should be subsumed, hidden from view if possible, but always minimized.

Too often, because of lot constraints and the need to house two cars, houses have a large garage at eye level, and hidden behind the garage somewhere a part of the house peaks out. Perhaps in some situations this is unavoidable, but too often it is avoidable and still built, ugly side out. We have simply come to accept it as normal. We buy houses that have this fault when the builder could have put the garage off to the side. Until we make these houses unpopular they will continue to be built and we will continue to live in neighborhood of garages rather than neighborhoods of homes.

Okay, so what can you do if you have this problem? Sell. No. That doesn't really solve anything. Read my helpful advice on how to dress it upfakeit, hide it or obscure it.

Sometimes all you have to do is make it look better than your neighbor's house. Okay, that doesn't really solve the problem either, but the solutions suggested in my articles should at least make the garage doors look a lot better.

Back Arrow.
Front Arrow.

To Top of This Page - Ugly Garage Doors

Start of Home Design Mistakes

Home - House Design


Like Me! Tweet Me! Comment! Tell your Story!
Please!

New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.

What are Your Top 10?

Tell us what makes your top 10 list, or tell us about one of the ones we posted. Maybe you have examples. I would love to add more pics to my articles.

Enter Your Title

[ ? ]

Upload 1-4 Pictures or Graphics (optional)

[ ? ]

 

Click here to upload more images (optional)

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

(first or full name)

(e.g., City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

  •  submission guidelines.


(You can preview and edit on the next page)

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

What about this pseudo garage doors or wall 
http://archdoc.mr926.com/social-green-house-darkitectura-2/29180/ I like that house, the look of it, to small, but seems nice. Editor's Response: …

Garage doors as main focus Not rated yet
I totally agree that the wide, sometimes contrasting color, garage doors on modern houses are an eyesore. What happened to the driveway that entered …

Click here to write your own.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.





Chrysler Building

See my Architectural Design Principles Sections



Greek Revival House in Hillsdale, MI

See my Greek Revival Sections



Moulton Carriage Door

Solve your Garage Door problem here



Gunston Hall - Georgian Style House

Investigate the Georgian Style here



Queen Anne house Bellefontaine

See the old Victorians here



mortise and tenon graphic

Confused? Try my Architectural Dictionary



cob house photo

Tired or Suburbia? Check out your alternatives here